Pulse-supervised multivehicle transportation

ABSTRACT

A multicar elevator supervisory system wherein a pulse driven scanner rapidly and continuously scans up and down in the order of the landings for the presence of car position signals, car call signals and corridor call signals. Solid-state logic circuits process the car position and call signals to generate control signals. A predetermined number of car calls and corridor calls are allocated to each car in accordance with a scheme which takes into account factors such as coincidence of car and corridor calls, the distance between cars and distance between calls. Such allocation of calls is reevaluated on each scan so that calls are distributed between the cars in accordance with the instantaneous traffic situation. The closest available car is assigned to satisfy a demand for an extra car which is created by the presence of more than the predetermined number of calls per car serving in a given direction or for calls which no car is in position to answer. A car can be reassigned if on selected scans tentative disregard of the designated car reveals that it can be released for service elsewhere without undue downgrading of service to the calls for service in the direction in which it was serving.

United States Patent [72) lnventors Andrew F. Kirsch Bdiaon; Henry C. Snvino, l-lackensack, NJ.; Gary D. Frey, Pittsburgh. Pa. [Zl] Appl. No. 806.761 [22] Filed Dec. I7, I968 [45] Patented June 29, l97l [73] Assignee Westinghouse Electric Corporation Pittsburgh, Pa. by said Kirsch and Savino I54] PULSE-SUPERVISED MULTIVEHICLE TRANSPORTATION 46 Claims, 35 Drawing Figs.

[$21 US. Cl. 187/29 R [5 l] Int. Cl 866i: 1/20 [50] Field of Search 187/29 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,443,668 S/l969 Hall etal. 187/29 CORRIDOR CALLS FORMING SCANNER 2 MULTIPLE! ALLOCATlON l BB ASSIGNMENT MULTIPLE! BY-PASS Primary Examiner-Cris L. Rader Assistant Examiner-W. E. Duncanson, Jr.

AltorneysA. T. Stratton, C. L. Freedman and R. V.

Westerhoff ABSTRACT: A multicar elevator supervisory system wherein a pulse driven scanner rapidly and continuously scans up and down in the order of the landings for the presence of car position signals, car call signals and corridor call signals. Solidstate logic circuits process the car position and call signals to generate control signals. A predetermined number of car calls and corridor calls are allocated to each car in accordance with a scheme which takes into account factors such as coincidence of car and corridor calls, the distance between cars and distance between calls. Such allocation of calls is reevaluated on each scan so that calls are distributed between the cars in accordance with the instantaneous traffic situation. The closest available car is assigned to satisfy a demand for an extra car which is created by the presence of more than the predetermined number of calls per car sewing in a given direction or for calls which no car is in position to answer. A car can be reassigned if on selected scans tentative disregard of the designated car reveals that it can be released for service elsewhere without undue downgrading of service to the calls for service in the direction in which it was serving.

BIO

MULTIPLEX BIS CAR AILABLE BIB STOPPiNG TRAVEL PATENIEU JUH29 191':

SHEET 01 0F 21 1(0 ZOFdOOJJq .mm m

XMJQTSDE ulvm INVENTORS Andrew E Kirsch,Henry C. Sovino WITNESSES $9M; Q,

and Gary DsYFr QM 1g ATTORNEY PATENTEU JUNZQ van 589,473

FIG. IO. 

1. A transportation system including a structure having a plurality of serially distributed landings, a plurality of vehicles, mounting means for mounting said vehicles for movement relative to the structure to serve the landings, and control means for controlling the movement of said vehicles, said control means including: availability means conditioning each vehicle under predetermined conditions to be available for assignment, first-direction landing call registering means operable for registering a call for service in a first direction from each of a plurality of said landings, scanning means to rapidly and continually scan the landings successively for detecting the presence of first-direction landing calls and vehicles serving in the first direction, allocating means responsive to the detection of first-direction landing calls and vehicles serving in the first direction by the scanning means for allocating on successive scans a predetermined number of first-direction landing calls ahead of each vehicle serving in the first direction to such vehicles, demand means for generating a demand for an extra vehicle to serve first-direction landing calls in response to the detection by the scanning means of a first-direction landing call not allocated to a vehicle, and assignment means responsive to the demand meanS for assigning an available vehicle to serve the demand for an extra vehicle to serve in the first direction, whereby the allocation of landing calls to vehicles serving in the first direction is continually being modified in accordance with the instantaneous traffic situation.
 2. The system of claim 1 including vehicle call registering means for each of the vehicles operable for registering a call for each of a plurality of landings which may be desired by load within the vehicle, and wherein said allocating means is responsive to both the landing call and vehicle call registering means in allocating calls to vehicles serving in the first direction.
 2. the demand memory is in its second condition, the available vehicle indicator means is in its first condition, and the counter means has been reset to its first condition,
 3. the demand memory means, the available vehicle indicator means and the counter means are all in their second conditions, and
 3. The system of claim 2 wherein the allocating means is operative to allocate vehicle calls as detected in the scanning sequence to the vehicle in which the vehicle call is registered and to allocate first-direction landing calls as detected in the scanning sequence to the closest vehicle serving in the first direction behind the landing call, said allocating means being further operative to allocate a first-direction landing call to the next closest vehicle serving in the first-direction behind the landing call which has not up to that point in the scan been allocated its predetermined number of calls when the predetermined number of calls have already been allocated on that scan to said closest vehicle.
 4. The system of claim 3 wherein the availability means is operative to condition a vehicle which has been serving in the first direction to be available for assignment in response to the failure of the allocating means to allocate any calls to said vehicle on a particular scan.
 4. the demand memory and the counter means are in said second conditions, the available vehicle indicator means is in said first condition and the scanning means has scanned past all of the landings in said first direction.
 5. The system of claim 4 including modifying means operative to prevent the availability means from conditioning a first vehicle serving in the first direction as available, even though no calls have been allocated to it by the allocating means, in response to a predetermined allocation of calls including at least one landing call by the allocating means to vehicles serving in the first direction ahead of said first vehicle.
 6. The system of claim 5 wherein said predetermined allocation includes the allocation of at least one landing call to serially preceding vehicle serving in the first direction.
 7. The system of claim 6 wherein said predetermined allocation includes the allocation of a quota of landing calls to the closest preceding vehicle serving in the first direction.
 8. The system of claim 3 wherein said allocating means includes: a plurality of counters, associating means operative to associate a separate counter with each vehicle serving in the first direction as detected by the scanning means during the scanning sequence, vehicle call input means for each counter for entering a count in the counter for each vehicle call detected by the scanning means for the associated vehicle, landing call input means for each counter operative from a first to a second condition in which condition first-direction landing calls detected by the scanner will be counted by the associated counter, and switching means operative to operate to the second condition the landing call input means of the counter associated with the last vehicle serving in the first direction detected by the scanning means up to that point in the scan which has not already reached the predetermined count, whereby vehicle calls are allocated to the counter associated with the vehicle in which the vehicle call is registered and first-direction landing calls are allocated to the counter associated with the last vehicle seen serving in the first direction by the scanning means that does not already have the predetermined number of calls allocated to it.
 9. The system of claim 1 including means responsive to the distance between the landing calls and the vehicles, and wherein said demand means includes means responsive to the presence of a landing call more than a predetermined distance ahead of any vehicle serving in the first direction for generating a demand for an extra vehicle independent on the number of calls ahead of the vehicles.
 10. A transportation system including a structure having a plurality of serially distributed landings, a plurality of vehicles, mounting means for mounting said vehicles for movement relative to the structure to serve the landings, and control means for controlling the movement of said vehicles, said control means including: availability means conditioning each vehicle under predetermined conditions to be available for assignment, first-direction landing call registering means operable for registering a call for service in a first-direction from each of a plurality of said landings, allocating means for allocating a predetermined number of first-direction landing calls ahead of vehicles serving landing calls in the first-direction to those vehicles, said allocating means including means effective to allocate first-direction landing calls to the closest such vehicle to the landing call in the second direction and including means to allocate excess first-direction landing calls to the next closest vehicle in the second direction serving calls in the first direction which does not have the predetermined number of calls allocated to it when the predetermined number of calls have been allocated to said closest vehicle, demand means for generating a demand for an extra vehicle to serve first-direction landing calls in response to the presence of a first-direction landing call not allocated to any vehicle serving in the first direction, and assignment means for assigning an available vehicle to serve the demand for an extra vehicle in the first direction.
 11. The system of claim 10 including, vehicle call registering means for each of the vehicles operative for registering a call for each of a plurality of landings which may be desired by load within the vehicle, and wherein said allocating means is responsive to both the first-direction landing call and vehicle call registering means in allocating calls to vehicles serving in the first direction, said allocating means including means allocating only one call to a vehicle for a landing at which a landing call and a vehicle call for that vehicle are both registered by the landing call and vehicle call means respectively.
 12. The system of claim 11 wherein the allocating means is operative to allocate the landing call registered for the same landing as a vehicle call to another vehicle serving first-direction landing calls other than the vehicle with the vehicle call when the allocating means has allocated a predetermined allocation of calls to the vehicle with the vehicle call for that landing.
 13. The system of claim 12 wherein the predetermined allocation of calls to the vehicle with the vehicle call is predetermined number of calls.
 14. The system of claim 11 including: stopping means responsive to the registration of first-direction landing calls and vehicle calls for stopping vehicles serving in the first direction at landings at which first direction landing calls are registered and at landings at which vehicle calls for the associated vehicle are registered, and including modifying means operative to render the stopping means unresponsive to a first-direction landing call in response to the presence of a trailing vehicle which will stop at said landing for a vehicle call within a predetermined time, said predetermined time being in excess of the normal lead time for initiating stopping of a vehicle at a particular landing.
 15. The system of claim 14 wherein said trailing vehicle will stop at said landing within a predetermined time when said trailing vehicle is within a predetermined number of landings of the landing call and the allocating means has allocated no intermediate landing calls to said trailing vehicle.
 16. The system of claim 10 wherein the predetermined conditions under which availability means condition a vehicle which as been seRving calls in the first direction as available for assignment include the condition that no calls remain in position to be allocated to said vehicle by said allocating means.
 17. The system of claim 16 including means operative to inhibit the availability means from conditioning a vehicle which has been serving in the first direction as available, even though there are no longer any calls in position to be allocated to said vehicle, under predetermined allocations of calls to other vehicles serving in the first direction preceding said vehicle.
 18. The system of claim 11 wherein the predetermined allocations of calls to other vehicles serving in the first direction preceding said vehicle include the allocation of the predetermined number of calls to the next preceding vehicle serving in the first direction.
 19. The system of claim 10 including: conditioning means responsive to the assigning means for conditioning an assigned vehicle to travel toward the first-direction landing call which generated the demand and to cause assigned vehicles traveling in the first direction when so conditioned to stop for first-direction landing calls, and bypass means responsive to the assigning means for causing said assigned vehicle to bypass first-direction landing calls until it has left a predetermined number of first-direction landing calls ahead of another vehicle serving in the first direction.
 20. The system of claim 19 including means for rendering said bypass means ineffective to cause assigned vehicles to bypass first-direction landing calls when said assigned vehicle is more than a predetermined distance ahead of the next vehicle serving in the first direction.
 21. The system of claim 10: including means responsive to the distance between the landing calls and the vehicles, and wherein said demand means includes means responsive to the presence of a landing call more than a predetermined distance ahead of any vehicle serving in the first direction for generating a demand for an extra vehicle independent of the number of calls ahead of the vehicles.
 22. A transportation system including a structure having a plurality of serially distributed landings, a plurality of vehicles, means mounting said vehicles for movement relative to the structure to serve the landings, and control means for controlling the movement of said vehicles, said control means including means conditioning each of said vehicles under predetermined conditions to be available for assignment, demand registering means associated with each of a plurality of said landings for registering a demand for service at the associated landing, scanning means to scan the linearly distributed landings successively in a first direction from one end of the structure to the other for detecting the presence of available vehicles and demands, in the order of the landings with which such available vehicles and demands are associated, selecting means responsive to the sequence in which the scanning means when operated in said first direction detects available vehicles and demands and the spacing between said vehicles and demands for selecting the closest available vehicle to a demand, and assignment means responsive to a demand and the operation of said selecting means for assigning and dispatching the closest available vehicle selected by the selecting means to serve such demand.
 23. The system of claim 22 wherein said selecting means includes means to select the first available vehicle detected by the scanning means on a particular scan as the closest available vehicle when the scanning means detects a demand before it detects an available vehicle.
 24. The system of claim 22 wherein said selecting means includes means responsive to the spacing between available vehicles and demands detected by the scanning means operative to select the last available vehicle detected by the scanning means before it detects a demand when the scanning means has scanned a prEdetermined number of landings beyond a demand without detecting another available vehicle.
 25. The system of claim 24 wherein the predetermined number of landings is equal to the number of landings scanned by the scanning means between the last available vehicle detected by the scanning means and the demand.
 26. The system of claim 22 wherein the selecting means includes means to select as the closest available vehicle to a demand an available vehicle detected by the scanning means at the same landing as the demand.
 27. The system of claim 22 wherein the selecting means includes means effective to select as the closest available vehicle an available vehicle detected by the scanning means to be at or less than a predetermined number of landings beyond a demand which was preceded in the scanning sequence by another available vehicle.
 28. The system of claim 27 wherein the predetermined number of landings is equal to the number of landings by which the last available vehicle detected before the demand precedes the demand in the scanning sequence.
 29. The system of claim 22 wherein the selecting means includes: demand memory means operative from a first to a second condition when a demand is detected by the scanning means, available vehicle indicator means operative from a first to a second condition while the scanning means is scanning at a landing at which an available vehicle is located, first circuit means associated with each vehicle operative from a first to a second condition when the associated vehicle is the last available vehicle detected by the scanning means on a particular scan, said first circuit means including means to reset the individual first circuit means to the first condition when another first circuit means is operated to the second condition, counter means for counting selected landings, said counter means being operative from a first to a second condition when the scanning means detects an available vehicle while said demand memory means is in said first condition, said counter means being reset to the first condition when the scanner has scanned past a predetermined number of landings after the demand memory means is operated to said second condition, and means responsive to the condition of the counter means, the demand memory means and the available vehicle indicator means to select the vehicle associated with the first circuit means which is in the second condition under the following sets of circumstances:
 30. The system of claim 29 wherein said counter means includes: first counter means for counting landings scanned by said scanning means while one of said first circuit means is in said second condition and said demand memory means is in said first condition, said first counter means being reset each time the available vehicle means is operated to the second condition while the demand memory means is in the first condition, second counter means for counting landings scanned by said scanning means when said demand memory means is in the second condition, and comparator means for comparing the counts in the first and second counters, said comparator having a first condition when all of the first circuit means are in the first condition and also when the count in the second counter eXceeds the count in said first counter, said comparator having a second condition when one of the first circuit means is operated to its second condition while the demand memory means is in said first condition, said second condition being maintained as long as the count in the first counter is at least equal to the count in the second counter whereby the condition of the counting means is indicated by the condition of the comparator means.
 31. The system of claim 22 wherein the selecting means includes: first counter means for counting landings scanned by the scanner between the last available vehicle detected by the scanner before a demand is detected and the demand, second counter means for counting landings between a demand and the next available vehicle detected by the scanner, and means for selecting the last available vehicle detected before the demand as the closest available vehicle when the count in the second counter exceeds the count in the first counter and also when the scanning means completes a scan without detecting another available vehicle after the demand, and for selecting the next available vehicle detected after a demand is detected as the closest available vehicle to that demand when the next available vehicle is detected before the count in the second counter exceeds the count in the first counter.
 32. The system of claim 31 wherein the selecting means selects an available vehicle located at the same landing as a demand as the closest available vehicle to that demand.
 33. The system of claim 32 wherein the demand registering means includes first demand registering means for registering demands for service in a first direction and second demand registering means for registering demands for service in the second direction and wherein the scanning means includes scanning control means operative to permit the scanning means to detect demands registered by only one demand registering means on each scan.
 34. The system of claim 33 wherein the scanning control means includes means operative to cause the scanner to scan the landings successively from one end of the structure to the other alternately in the first direction when the scanning control means is operative to permit the scanning means to detect demands for service in the first direction, and in the second direction when the scanning control means is operative to permit the scanning means to detect demands for service in the second direction.
 35. The system of claim 34 wherein the conditioning means is only effective to condition a vehicle as available upon completion of the scan in the direction in which the vehicle had been serving whereby demands for service in the direction opposite to the direction in which the car had been serving are given priority.
 36. The system of claim 22 wherein said selecting means includes a counter means operative to count the landings scanned by the scanning means between the position of the demand and the positions of the last and the first available vehicles respectively detected by the scanner before and after the demand in the scanning sequence for determining the closest available vehicle.
 37. The system of claim 36 including means to insert extra counts in the counter at points in the scanning cycle where the distance between successive landings substantially exceeds the normal distance between landings.
 38. A transportation system including a structure having a plurality of landings, a plurality of vehicles, mounting means for mounting said vehicles for movement relative to the structure to serve the landings and control means for controlling the movement of said vehicles, said control means including: landing call registering means for registering calls for service at a plurality of said landings, scanning means to rapidly scan the landings at a rate many times faster than the rate at which a vehicle can move from one landing to the next for scanning for the presence of landing calls and vehicles, allocAting means responsive to the detection of landing calls and vehicles by the scanning means for allocating landing calls to be served by selected vehicles in accordance with a first vehicle distribution pattern, simulating means for simulating on selected scans an alternate vehicle distribution pattern, said simulating means being operable from a first to a second condition when said alternate distribution pattern satisfies predetermined conditions, and reallocating means for reallocating landing calls to vehicles in accordance with the alternate vehicle distribution pattern when said simulating means is operated to said second condition.
 39. A transportation system including a structure having a plurality of landings, a plurality of vehicles, mounting means for mounting said vehicles for movement relative to the structure to serve the landings and control means for controlling the movement of said vehicles, said control means including: first-direction landing call registering means operable for registering calls for service in the first direction from a plurality of said landings, means for conditioning vehicles traveling in the first direction to serve first-direction landing calls under predetermined conditions, second direction demand means operable for registering a demand for an extra vehicle to serve in the second direction, allocating means operable to allocate a plurality of first-direction landing calls ahead of each vehicle conditioned to serve first-direction landing calls to such vehicles, and releasing means for releasing a selected vehicle conditioned to serve in the first direction from serving its allocated first-direction landing calls to serve a second direction demand under predetermined conditions including the condition that releasing said vehicle from serving in the first direction does not leave any first-direction landing calls not allocated to a vehicle serving in the first direction ahead of the remaining vehicles serving in the first direction when the first-direction landing calls are reallocated to said remaining vehicles serving in the first direction.
 40. The system of claim 39 wherein the allocating means is operative to allocate a predetermined number of first-direction landing calls ahead of each vehicle conditioned to serve first-direction landing calls to such vehicle, wherein the releasing means includes means to blank said allocating means from considering the selected vehicle when allocating first-direction landing calls to vehicles conditioned to serve first-direction landing calls, and wherein said predetermined conditions under which the selected vehicle is released from serving first-direction landing calls include the condition that such release will not leave more than said predetermined number of first-direction landing calls per vehicle ahead of the remaining vehicles serving in the first direction.
 41. The system of claim 40 wherein said selected vehicle is the lead vehicle serving in said first direction, and wherein the conditions under which said lead vehicle is released from serving in the first direction include the condition that no other vehicle be available for serving said second direction demand.
 42. A transportation system including a structure having a plurality of serially distributed landings, a vehicle, mounting means for mounting said vehicle for movement relative to the structure to serve the landings and control means for controlling the movement of said vehicle, said control means including: call registering means operative for registering a call for service from each of a plurality of landings, logic means, responsive to the location of registered calls and the location of the vehicle for causing said vehicle to respond to said registered calls according to a first distribution pattern, simulating means operative under predetermined condition to simulate an alternate distribution pattern, said simulating means being oPerative from a first to a second condition when said alternate distribution pattern satisfies predetermined criteria, and modifying means operative in response to the operation of the simulating means to the second condition to modify said logic means to cause said vehicle to respond to said registered calls according to the alternate distribution pattern.
 43. The system of claim 42: including a plurality of vehicles mounted for movement relative to the structure to serve the landings, and wherein said logic means is responsive to the location of each of the vehicles and is operative to cause the plurality of vehicles to respond to the registered calls according to a first distribution pattern and in accordance with a second distribution pattern when modified by said modifying means.
 44. The system of claim 43: wherein the logic means includes allocating means for allocating selected calls to selected vehicles in accordance with said first distribution pattern and demand means operative to generate a demand for an extra vehicle in the presence of a call not allocated by the allocating means to a selected vehicle, and wherein said simulating means simulates an alternate allocation of calls to vehicles and is operative to the second condition when the alternate allocation of calls to vehicles does not cause the demand means to simulate a demand which did not exist under the first distribution pattern.
 45. A transportation system including a structure having a plurality of serially distributed landings, a plurality of vehicles, mounting means for mounting said vehicles for movement relative to the structure to serve the landings, and control means for controlling the movement of the vehicles, said control means including: first-direction landing call registering means operable for registering a call for service in a first direction from each of a plurality of said landings, second-direction landing call registering means operable for registering a call for service in a second direction for each of a plurality of said landings, conditioning means operative to condition vehicles to a first condition to serve first-direction landing calls and to a second condition to serve second-direction landing calls, call recognizing means responsive to the location of first-direction landing calls when operated to a first condition and responsive to the locations of the second-direction landing calls when operated to the second condition, a plurality of individual logic means each operative to associate a predetermined distribution of landing calls to a vehicle assigned to it, and assigning means responsive to the call recognizing means and operative to assign individual logic means to individual vehicles in said first condition according to a first scheme when said call recognizing means is in said first condition and operative to assign the individual logic means to individual vehicles in said second condition according to a second scheme when said call recognizing means is in the second condition.
 46. The system of claim 45: wherein the call recognizing means comprises scanning means operative to a first condition to scan the landings successively for the presence of first-direction landing calls and vehicles in said first condition, and operative to a second condition to scan the landing successively for the presence of second-direction landing calls and vehicles in said second condition, and wherein said assigning means is responsive to the scanning means and is operative to assign individual logic means to individual vehicles in said first condition according to a first scheme when said scanner is in said first condition and is operative to assign the individual logic means to individual vehicles in said second condition according to a second scheme when said scanner is in the second condition. 